Change of Mind
by Celestial-moon-fire
Summary: Fed up by Dib's meddling, Zim finally comes up with a plan to deal with him. Zim changes Dib's thoughts on saving the Earth using a spare Pak, but he doesn't expect to change his own thoughts on the human.
1. Phase one

Right now, I'm not sure iof it's a pairing, or just friendship. I'll decide later, as I go through with the story.

* * *

"Gir, quiet, the Dib-Worm will hear us!" Zim hissed, stepping out of the Voot Cruiser and onto Dib's windowsill. He had no idea WHY he'd brought Gir along with him; maybe because field work could be lonely. But for whatever reason, he was beginning to regret it, as Gir seemed to be doing his best to compromise the mission by singing another round of the Doom Song.

"Awwww…" Gir frowned. "Okay." He sulked in the back seat, watching Zim sadly.

He turned his head, ignoring his actions to stare into the window again. The human was still sleeping, much to Zim's amusement. Zim took a few moments to check his surroundings again, and then slowly, quietly, he slipped his three-fingered hands under the window and pulled it up.

It made no sound, much to his relief. With the window no longer in the way, Zim could freely sneak into the Dib-worm's room, and activate stage one of his plan. Stage one, of course, being the installation of a certain program to his computer. All Zim needed to do was simply put the disk into the disk drive, where it would infect his computer with a bit of a... Virus.

As soon as that was done, he could leave. Which he of course, did, after placing a camera or two in random corners of the room.

bNext day already?/b

Dib awoke with a knock on his door. "Dib! Time for school!" Gaz yelled, like every morning. Dib moaned sleepily. What a good dream he'd been having! Zim was finally exposed to the world for the alien he was... Why did it have to end so soon?

Well, anyways, Dib crawled out of bed and shivered. 'Man it's cold...'

He grabbed his towel from the corner of his bed, then a pair of clothes to replace his pajamas with and headed to the bathroom for a quick shower.

He stared at himself in the mirror, unimpressed by what he saw. Tired eyes, the impression of a watch on his cheek, a band-aid over his eye, yea. He ignored it all and tossed his clothes in a pile by the door, next to Gaz's pajamas and turned on the water. Steaming warm water, nice... Wonderful...

He found himself dozing off, leaning against the cool tile wall. School started WAY too early to be healthy. Sighing, he straightened up and washed his hair. After he was finished with all that he turned off the water and got out.

Dib dried off, pulled his clothes, the usual blue sweater and black jeans, then set to work on his hair. His hair, oddly, was naturally styled to look like a scythe. He was proud to say no hair gel for him.

Then again, no one cared enough to ask. But oh well, right? He was... Too busy stopping Zim anyways.

(A bit later, after breakfast)

With still half an hour before he would leave for school, Dib ran back upstairs for his coat, and his shoes. After pulling them both on, he sat down at his computer and turned it on.

"Can't wait to see what Zim is up to now!" He laughed to himself, pulling up a few windows of video feed from his cameras.

"I bet he's up to something evil..." He muttered as the cameras began to show what they could. Carefully, Dib zoomed in on the camera in the lab. Zim was tinkering with the contents of his robot's head. Gir's eyes were were gray and blank.

"Trying to fix Gir again, Zim?" Dib teased, though he knew the alien couldn't hear him.

Dib watched for a while, until he noticed something. The camera... Was moving?

"No no no, put that down!" I hissed, hoping whoever was fiddling with my camera would go away.

Suddenly it came free from its place on the wall, and Dib had a perfectly nice view of... Gir's face.

'I thought Zim was tinkering with your brain...?" Dib thought. He was sure Zim only had one robot. Maybe it was a new project or something. Spare parts. Yea, something like that.

"Look Masta!" Gir squealed in his robotic, high pitched voice. "I found sumthin cewl!"

"Let see that." Zim voice said from somewhere behind Gir. Said robot squealed again and handed the camera over to Zim, who stared into it with a narrow-eyed glare. "Another one? I thought I got rid of them all." He mumbled mostly to himself. "No spying for you today, Dib-worm." Zim growled, speaking louder. With that last word, the camera screen went blank.

"Stupid robot. Took me forever to get that camera in the lab." Dib sighed, exiting the window. He did the same for each one, and then went to shut down the computer until school let out. No use recording while the alien was in school, right?

As Dib reached the mouse over to click the shut down button, a sudden jolt of electricity shocked his hand.

"Ow!" He pulled his hand away quickly, examining it. The wound, a long gash that ran the length of almost half his palm, was sizzling slightly. As if he'd been trying to cook it or something. It was clear for another moment before the blood began to ooze out slowly, filling his hand.

"What... Just happened?" Did his mouse bite him? Revenge for clicking it so often? Whatever happened, it really hurt. Dib cupped his injured hand and held his left under it to catch any blood that dripped down.

'What a way to start the day.' He scowled, nudging the door open and rushing to the bathroom to wash and bandage his new injury.

'Jeeze, that's one deep cut.' Dib thought, gently pulling his skin in opposite directions to rinse the blood out. Holding it under cold water stung more, and his hand felt like an ice cube, but the bleeding stopped for the time being.

"That looks like it will need stitches." Dib jumped, not expecting to hear his fathers voice behind him.

It wasn't, of course the real professor, He was at work by now. The voice came from his newest inventions, the 'Home-Infirmary-Unit' which held his voice, a picture of him, and a ton of medical information.

Dib hadn't used it before, so it was quite surprising.

"Is there a quicker solution?" Dib asked, eying the clock on the wall. The screen was silent for a moment, then replied;

"Temporary solutions include superglue and bandages." With that said, two small robotic arms produced a roll of bandages and a tube of superglue. Dib took them wordlessly, and watched as the screen folded up and attached itself to the dock by the sink.

With another sigh, Dib removed his hand from the cold stream of water,shook it lightly, and pulled at it again. Removing the cap with his teeth, he squeezed the glue into the gash. Eyes watered up in response, as the glue began to dry. He let it sit there for a few seconds more before wrapping the bandage around his had and tying it down.

"That should do for now." He muttered, staring at his hand as he ran down the stairs and out the door to walk to school with Gaz.


	2. Something feels wrong

Right now, I'm not sure iof it's a pairing, or just friendship. I'll decide later, as I go through with the story.

* * *

Change of Mind chapter two

(At school by now, I assume)

"See you at lunch Gaz." Dib said, walking off down his hallway. He got no reply, as usual, from his sister. Oh well.

The door to his class was open already. Dib slipped inside quietly, staring at the bandage on his hand again. A failed attempt at hiding his laughter told Dib that Zim was already here. He shot him a dirty glare, but said nothing. He wasn't in the mood today.

Dib dropped his bag on the floor by his desk and sat down, still examining his hand.

'Ha! Phase one went perfectly!' Zim thought, trying not to laugh. It was so hilarious! To think, the Dib-human didn't have any idea what was happening in his brain at this very moment. The glare he sent Zim's only served to make him laugh harder. Zim would have continued on, but a shadow over his desk made him look away.

"Zim." There was Ms. Bitters, looming over the desk, back arched like a cat.

""Yes Ms Bitters?" Zim replied polity.

"Shut up." With that, she slithered away.

Normally, Dib would have been laughing himself at that small spectacle, but now he had a terrible feeling in his stomach. It wasn't like he was going to be sick, it was more... Of just an unpleasant feeling. As the day went by, it slowly grew worse.

After Ms. Bitters finished her most recent rant about their doom and destruction, she made them get out their notebooks and pulled up a slide of notes on the projector machine. Dib winced as he picked up the pencil. His hand ached still from before.

As he began to copy the notes, looking at the slide only, (Ms,. Bitters gave you exactly three minutes to copy down as much as you could from a single slide before moving on to the next) he tried to ignore it. But then, suddenly, as he looped his last 'e,' he felt a sharp pain in the hand he was writing with. Looking down, he saw a smear of blood on his paper.

"Owwwwww..." he hissed quietly, dropping his pen and grabbed his wrist, examining the bandage. It was beginning to change from light brown to a reddish color as the blood began to seep through.

"Dib, no talking in class." Ms. Bitters snapped, turning her head top look at him.

"Sorry. Ms. Bitters,can I go to the nurse?" He asked. "My hand is bleeding heavily." He held his hand out a little so she could see better.

"No."

"But it's bl-"

"I said no. Go to the nurse on your own time."

Everyone began to laugh. Dib could feel his face go hot as he sunk down in his seat a bit.

Zim watched the scene with glee, making no efforts to hide the wide grin on his face as the Dib-thing sunk down in his seat, face glowing red.

That was something Zim found funny about the humans, how they turned red when they were embarrassed. Zim's own people had something similar, only his face would go a sort of... Blueish teal, to use human colors. The color named on Irk was something he just couldn't translate into English.

After a death glare from the teacher, the class grew silent again. The smile never left Zim's face, however.

The whole class looked back up towards the front to continue note copying, save for Zim. He was too busy staring at Dib.

He could tell from all the way across the room that his hand was bleeding heavily, the bandages completely soaked red. A large smear of blood ruined whatever notes he;d taken before the bleeding started.

'Awesome...' Zim grinned even wider, excited that for once, things were going his way.

By the time the bell rang for lunch, Dib had given up all hope of copying whatever Ms. Bitters was making them write down. His hand was still throbbing, his stomach was doing flip flops, (No, not the shoes) and now his head was beginning to hurt too.

He asked a teacher if he could run off to the nurse, but she too said no,. Must have been in league with Ms. Bitters. So, instead of going to the nurse, Dib walked to the lunch line, sadly defeated.

He grabbed a lunch off the line anyways, purely out of habit, though he never ate there anyways. Not after the time Zim snuck into his body via moldy green peas. Silently, Dib took his usual seat next to his sister Gaz.

Instead of eating the moldy lunch, he used his left hand and poked it around a bit with a fork until the food devoured the grimy white plastic. Yea. This school had some serious safety issues. He dropped the rest of the fork into the mush and pushed it away, examining his right hand again.

"How'd you do that?" Gaz asked suddenly, causing Dib to jump. Gaz never spike to him at school. Ever. Well, sometimes, but... Never.

"The computer mouse attacked me this morning." He explained.

Gaz looked up from her game for a few seconds to give him her unimpressed look, then looked back to her game muttering "Right."

"No really Gaz, that;s what happened." Dib said.

"Hmm." That was his only reply.

After lunch it was back to Ms. Bitters classroom. Zim had been watching Dib the whole lunch period, almost drunk with excitement and glee. Still the Dib-thing had no idea what was going on. With luck, the next phase would go just as well as the first.


	3. What's with the Sombrero

Change of Mind Chapter three

What's with the Sombrero?

Maybe another hour into class, and Dib's head felt like it was going to split in half. It was as if there was a monkey playing drums with its feet whilst using a chainsaw to carve through his skull at the same time. But hey, at least his hand stopped bleeding. Probably so much dried blood sealing it shut for a while. But right now, Dib didn't really care about his hand. As was mentioned earlier, his head was killing him.

The page full of complex math problems sitting in front of him weren't helping one bit, either. It wasn't as though he didn't know how to solve them. In fact, he was one of the few in the class who could understand them at all. (The others being Ms. Bitters, and of course, Zim.) The pain from his head was so intense, it messed up his train of thought. He was trying to multiply seven to the third power so he could plug it into the bigger equation, but after each attempt, his brain seemed to revolt, sending more waves of pain through his skull skull. By the time class ended and the bell rang, nothing had been accomplished. Ms. Bitters gave him an F right there and left.

He walked slowly out of the classroom, holding his head with his left hand. When he got outside he sat on a bench to wait for Gaz so they could walk home together again.

"Ha, you have no idea how close you are to your demise, pitiful Earth bug." Zim cackled, poking at a bug with a stick. He ignored all the weird looks he was getting as he waited by the front door of the school. He was actually waiting for Dib to come out before he headed home. Oh, how he loved seeing the Dib in pain. It made him feel giggly and excited. Odd, but one can't help how it thinks and feels, can it?

"Let's go." Gaz said, walking right past Dib. She never said anything else. Never stopped. All she really wanted to do was finish her homework as quickly as possible so she could play her game.

Dig stood up, swinging his bag over his shoulder and following.

While sitting, hid headache had dulled down, no longer hurting him as much. And actually, by the time he got home, it was gone completely. The only part of him the still hurt was his hand, but even that wasn't as bad as before.

As soon as Dib walked through the front door, he headed to his room, dropping his bag on the bed and tossing his mouse in the garbage. The he went to the bathroom to check on his hand.

The bandage was hard from all the dried blood, and made a crinkly sound as he unwrapped it. His eyes watered as it began to tug at his skin in the places where the blood had glued it to his hand. He eventually pulled the nasty bandage off and turned on the water to rinse the blood from his hand. As the blood washed away, Dib was unhappy to admit it wasn't the prettiest sight in the world. The whole thing looked sticky and gross.

"Eww."

Dib spent the next few minutes bandaging it up again, and after he was finished, he went to his room to start his homework. Ms Bitters was relentless when it came to homework. And it really didn't help that every year she was his teacher. That confused him, but oh well.

Meanwhile, back in Zim's base, Zim sat in his computer chair, watching the Dib-thing attempt to do his homework. The notes he'd failed to take that day were important. Though Dib might be regretting it, Zim was once again smiling widely at the boy's frustration. He himself only had to feed the paper into the computer and pick it up on the way out the door.

Dib had to actually THINK about what he would write.

A laugh escaped past Zim's lips when the human finally snapped his pencil in half and threw it at the wall, dropping his head to rest on the desk. He mumbled something Zim didn't pick up, and sat there like that for a few minutes.

Then a few more minutes. "I'm getting bored now." Zim said with a frown. "Zim shall check on the results." He clicked out of the window he had up and checked to progress bar on screen. With an un-Irken-like squeal, he jumped out of his chair and made a victory pose. The bar was around ninety-three percent full! It would take only a half an hour of Irken time (Ten Earth Minutes) before he could begin the next phase! How exciting!

"Gir! GIR!" He yelled for the robot. Moments later, Gir skidded to a halt in front of Zim.

"Gir! We must beg-" He halted himself. "Why are you wearing a sombrero?" Zim examined his robot from head too toe. The SIR unit was clothed in his dog-suit, though the hood was down. That way he could wear a large sombrero on his robotic head.

"Cause the muffin man made toast!" Gir smiled up at him.

"Er... Right." Zim shook his head slightly. "Anyways. I need you to watch this bar, and tell me when it's one hundred percent full. Do you understand?"

Gir blinked up at him a few times and smiled again. "Okay!" Gir hopped into Zim's chair and sat, hunched over with his hands holding onto his toes. His eyes were focused on the bar for a full minute.

Satisfied, Zim turned to leave.

Back with Dib, however, things weren't going so well. After he threw the pencil away, Dib's headache returned. It was just a dull ache right now, but it would probably get worse again. He decided he would look for something to help with the headache before it got too out of hand.

Halfway to the staircase, a sudden stab of pain forced him to stop. "Owwwwwww....." He moaned. Now his stomach hurt as bad as his head earlier.

His mouth tasted funny now, like he'd just drunk sour milk. He covered it with his hand. That was usually the... 'Oh quiff...'

Downstairs, Gaz could hear everything going on upstairs. She twitched, missing a vampire piggy by a few pixels. When Dib got out of the bathroom... He would PAY.


	4. Strange happenings

YES I know it's terrible this time. But honestly, for once inmy life, I don'tcare. Sorry .

* * *

His throat was on fire, or at least, that's how it felt. With a shaky breath, Dib rinsed out the cup he used for his toothbrush and filled it with water. He swished it around in his mouth and spit it out out, hoping to be rid of the taste.

He didn't swallow any, even after the taste was gone. The water up here wasn't really very good. His father told him once, a looooooong time ago it could make him sick. Instead, he should go downstairs and get a drink from the sink in the kitchen, which had filtered water. And that's exactly what he did next, not but a moment or so later.

Dib headed right for the kitchen for the water. As soon as he stepped onto the white-tiled floor, he tripped over something. Instead of crashing into the floor immediately, he attempted to stay on his feet, but failed miserably by crashing into the table instead. He heard a satisfied laugh, and then footsteps softly tapping further away, and though 'Gaz.' He wasn't sure what he'd done this time, but he didn't really care. Instead, he curled into a ball and moaned in pain for a little while.

When his head stopped throbbing, he pulled himself to his feet, got his water, and went to his room again to crawl under the covers and sleep for a while.

Screw his homework. He hurt and didn't feel like doing anything. He might even just stay home from school tomorrow, as well.

Back,once again, in Zim's base, a little robot dressed as a dog with a sombrero was sitting still, watching the bar slowly fill to a hundred percent. Normally, sitting still for so long would have been unthinkable, but this show was so like his favorite angry monkey show, he couldn't resist.

Once the bar finally filled to one hundred, he jumped up and shouted "WOOHOO!" then rolled on the floor a few times. Excited, Gir, the robot, ran straight to his master, not stopping until he'd knocked him over and jumped on him a few times.

"MASTAH! MASTAH! The giant TV says the show is one hundred!"

Zim blinked, then pushed Gir off him so he could sit up. A sinister grin slowly grew on his face. He climbed to his feet with the help of his metal spider limbs, laughing. Finally, he could start Phase two! He just needed to know where the Dib-human was...

Immediately Zim ran back to the computer to bring up the camera feed. Maybe the human was still doing homework.

Once he reached the computer, he minimized the loading bar screen and brought back up the cameras. The Dib wasn't at his desk anymore, but curled up in his bed.

'Humans don't go to bed this early, do they?' Zim wondered whilst typing away at his computer. He input a few codes, and waited as once again another bar appeared on screen. By tomorrow, he'd have everything he needed... then the REAL fun would begin.

"Time for Skool." Gaz called through Dib's door as she did every morning. Dib, despite being the light sleeper he was, didn't awaken from his sleep. Gaz had no way of knowing that waking him up could have set back a certain alien's plans, but as the world should know by now, she really didn't care.

She didn't even notice that she walked to school alone.

Ironically, the one person who seemed to care where Dib was, happened to be his worst enemy. Or at least pretty high on the list.

"Yes... Sleep away, Dib-thing! For you have no idea that I, the incredible, AMAZING Zim, am draining each of your disgusting Earth memories from your freakishly gargantuan head cavity!" Zim took a moment to laugh. It was going so well for a change! For once, everything would work out.

He had to wonder what he would do when the Dib-thing was out of the way. So many dooms he could inflict upon the disgusting race of human monkeys! He could sabotage all the worlds Ultra Toast machines, and make them create delicious waffles, for one. Oh, how the Irken loved Waffles. Besides germ-Spray and Paste, they were the only good inventions from this pathetically primitive planet.

But of course he would have to leave that to another time. First, he needed to pay attention to the Dib-thing. His memories were almost completely downloaded. It had taken him and entire Earth night, (Roughly two full Irken days, if you wondered.) ti get this far. By now, something should have gone very wrong. Luckily, the stars were on his side.

He needed only a few more minutes to drain the last bit of information he could... Than he;d allow the Dib to wake up.

Chapter four

Strange happenings

His throat was on fire, or at least, that's how it felt. With a shaky breath, Dib rinsed out the cup he used for his toothbrush and filled it with water. He swished it around in his mouth and spit it out out, hoping to be rid of the taste.

He didn't swallow any, even after the taste was gone. The water up here wasn't really very good. His father told him once, a looooooong time ago it could make him sick. Instead, he should go downstairs and get a drink from the sink in the kitchen, which had filtered water. And that's exactly what he did next, not but a moment or so later.

Dib headed right for the kitchen for the water. As soon as he stepped onto the white-tiled floor, he tripped over something. Instead of crashing into the floor immediately, he attempted to stay on his feet, but failed miserably by crashing into the table instead. He heard a satisfied laugh, and then footsteps softly tapping further away, and though 'Gaz.' He wasn't sure what he'd done this time, but he didn't really care. Instead, he curled into a ball and moaned in pain for a little while.

When his head stopped throbbing, he pulled himself to his feet, got his water, and went to his room again to crawl under the covers and sleep for a while.

Screw his homework. He hurt and didn't feel like doing anything. He might even just stay home from school tomorrow, as well.

Back,once again, in Zim's base, a little robot dressed as a dog with a sombrero was sitting still, watching the bar slowly fill to a hundred percent. Normally, sitting still for so long would have been unthinkable, but this show was so like his favorite angry monkey show, he couldn't resist.

Once the bar finally filled to one hundred, he jumped up and shouted "WOOHOO!" then rolled on the floor a few times. Excited, Gir, the robot, ran straight to his master, not stopping until he'd knocked him over and jumped on him a few times.

"MASTAH! MASTAH! The giant TV says the show is one hundred!"

Zim blinked, then pushed Gir off him so he could sit up. A sinister grin slowly grew on his face. He climbed to his feet with the help of his metal spider limbs, laughing. Finally, he could start Phase two! He just needed to know where the Dib-human was...

Immediately Zim ran back to the computer to bring up the camera feed. Maybe the human was still doing homework.

Once he reached the computer, he minimized the loading bar screen and brought back up the cameras. The Dib wasn't at his desk anymore, but curled up in his bed.

'Humans don't go to bed this early, do they?' Zim wondered whilst typing away at his computer. He input a few codes, and waited as once again another bar appeared on screen. By tomorrow, he'd have everything he needed... then the REAL fun would begin.

"Time for Skool." Gaz called through Dib's door as she did every morning. Dib, despite being the light sleeper he was, didn't awaken from his sleep. Gaz had no way of knowing that waking him up could have set back a certain alien's plans, but as the world should know by now, she really didn't care.

She didn't even notice that she walked to school alone.

Ironically, the one person who seemed to care where Dib was, happened to be his worst enemy. Or at least pretty high on the list.

"Yes... Sleep away, Dib-thing! For you have no idea that I, the incredible, AMAZING Zim, am draining each of your disgusting Earth memories from your freakishly gargantuan head cavity!" Zim took a moment to laugh. It was going so well for a change! For once, everything would work out.

He had to wonder what he would do when the Dib-thing was out of the way. So many dooms he could inflict upon the disgusting race of human monkeys! He could sabotage all the worlds Ultra Toast machines, and make them create delicious waffles, for one. Oh, how the Irken loved Waffles. Besides germ-Spray and Paste, they were the only good inventions from this pathetically primitive planet.

But of course he would have to leave that to another time. First, he needed to pay attention to the Dib-thing. His memories were almost completely downloaded. It had taken him and entire Earth night, (Roughly two full Irken days, if you wondered.) ti get this far. By now, something should have gone very wrong. Luckily, the stars were on his side.

He needed only a few more minutes to drain the last bit of information he could... Than he;d allow the Dib to wake up.


	5. Gasp, he wakes!

Next Chapter

A few minutes later, Dib, after a good solid twelve hour sleep finally stirred. He sat up slowly, rubbing his eyes as he fought back a yawn. He felt much better after his nap. His stomach had calmed and even his headache was gone.

"Weird." He commented. Normally he was sick for a few days after catching something. But whop was he to look good fortune in the eye? So with that, he headed for the bathroom to take his morning shower. Halfway there, he realized he was still in his clothes from the day before. He doubled back to grab something new and continued to his destination.

As with the day before he checked his appearance in the mirror. Still not impressive, but at least he didn't have an impression of his watch in his skin.

Dib shrugged. He tossed his dirt clothes in the hamper, on top of Gaz's purple skulls. Humming a song he didn't know, he turned on the water and ran his hand under the water to test it. Immediately he jerked his hand back, staring at his bright red hand, steam rising off. The water wheel read warm.

"Pipes are acting up again." He mumbled, sliding the temperature down to a cooler one. The water was just as hot as before. With an annoyed hudff, he set it all the way at the bottom, sending out blasts of freezing water. Or what should be freezing. Testing it proved it was just the right temperature.

He was about to step in when he remembered the injury on his other hand. As the water ran, he unwrapped his hasty bandages from the day before and checked the wound. It glared angrily at him, blood already welling up from the agitation.

He tossed the bandage and searched under the cabinet from more. Apparently, the medbot only worked when it felt like it. As soon as he found the bandages he rolled them around his hand and carefully shoved his hand into a rubber glove he'd found top protect it from the water as he showered. "Mmm.. Warm water..." He sighed as he washed his hair.

(Wow... that took me forever to typ eup,. It was in my notebook from back in 9th grade and I just finally typed it up. *feels terrible~?* xD)


End file.
